Plans for massive redevelopment of CapitalCare Norwood moving ahead

Lois Davis is working hard at rehabilitation to return home at CapitalCare Norwood, a unique facility that provides a transition place for patients to stay who don't need to be in acute care in the hospital but aren't ready to go home.Bruce Edwards / Edmonton Journal, file

A $364-million redevelopment of CapitalCare Norwood on the city’s north side will transform the facility into a “centre of excellence” for complex continuing care patients while adding 145 badly needed beds, Alberta Health Services says.

Preliminary plans released by the health authority call for a large new building of five to seven storeys constructed on the northwest edge of the site, followed by major renovations to another facility and the demolition of two other structures.

“I think Norwood is going to be very well known after this is finished,” said Dean Olmstead, senior director of capital management for the Edmonton zone.

Olmstead said architects will be working on detailed designs for the project over the next year, which means construction is expected to start sometime in the fall of 2018.

The facility, located across the road from the Royal Alexandra Hospital at 111 Avenue and 105 Street, is already an important cog in the continuing care system due to its mix of specialized services.

Among the programs on-site is a chronic ventilation unit for residents who cannot breathe independently, a brain injury unit, hospice beds, and spaces for patients needing restorative or sub-acute care.

However, such services are housed in cramped and aging facilities that are too small to accommodate increased demand.

A particular sore point is the 52-year-old North Pavilion, which is plagued with an unreliable elevator and an outdated electrical system that frequently gets overloaded. Hallways and rooms are often cluttered with big fans to make up for the lack of air conditioning.

An overhaul of CapitalCare Norwood has been listed as one of AHS’s top priorities for years, but provincial funding was never secured until the NDP government announced the $364-million investment in last spring’s budget.

Olmstead said the centrepiece of the project will be the new 40,000-square-metre building touted to be a première teaching and research centre that will house most of Norwood’s programs.

However, because the proposed structure requires so much space, planners have faced a headache in trying to find a suitable parcel of land on the Norwood site, he said.

The health authority’s preferred solution is to expand to the west, which means buying and tearing down eight homes on 105 Street.

Olmstead said AHS could conceivably avoid tearing down the homes by instead constructing a tall, skinny skyscraper on the current property, but it was felt the community would object.

“A tall building isn’t efficient for patient care anyway because you are then spending all your time riding the elevator,” he said. “We couldn’t find a good way of doing it without expanding the footprint.”

He said the biggest complication is that the North Pavilion can’t be demolished until the new building is finished. Not only does AHS need the beds to stay open, but the North Pavilion also provides some of the power for the whole facility.

Given the various challenges, Olmstead some residents have asked why AHS doesn’t just build on an entirely new site. The idea was considered but Norwood’s current proximity to the Royal Alex and Glenrose was too big an advantage to give up, he said.

Once the new building is up and running, refurbishments can begin for the 44-year-old Angus McGugan Pavilion, which currently serves as the main centre on the site.

The project will see CapitalCare Norwood expand from 205 beds to 350, including:

• 40 beds for chronic ventilation residents;

• 5 beds for respiratory respite residents;

• 24 beds for the brain injury unit;

• 38 beds for hospice care;

• 137 beds for complex continuing care;

• 16 beds for hemodialysis patients; and

• 90 beds for post-acute care.

Olmstead said the expansion will help address the backlog for continuing care space and reduce overcrowding in Edmonton’s hospitals.

“The new Edmonton hospital they’ve announced will be a huge help but that’s a number of years down the road,” he said. “This will be considerably sooner and it will contribute to the increase in bed capacity in the city.”

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